Google is learning to differentiate between your voice and your friend’s

We may be able to pick out our best friend’s or our mother’s voice from a crowd, but can the same be said for our smart speakers? For the time being, the answer may be “no.” Smart assistants aren’t always right about who’s speaking, but Google is looking to change that with a pretty elegant solution.

Thanks to new research detailed in a paper titled, “Looking to Listen at the Cocktail Party,” Google researchers explain how a new deep learning system is able to identify voices simply by looking at people’s faces as they speak.

“People are remarkably good at focusing their attention on a particular person in a noisy environment, mentally “muting” all other voices and sounds,” Inbar Mosseri and Oran Lang, software engineers at Google Research noted in a blog post. And while this ability is innate to human beings, “automatic speech separation — separating an audio signal into its individual speech sources — while a well-studied problem, remains a significant challenge for computers.”

Mosseri and Lang, however, have created a deep learning audio-visual model capable of isolating speech signals from a variety of other auditory inputs, like additional voices and background noise. “We believe this capability can have a wide range of applications, from speech enhancement and recognition in videos, through video conferencing, to improved hearing aids, especially in situations where there are multiple people speaking,” the duo said.

So how did they do it? The first step was training the system to identify individual voices (paired with their faces) speaking uninterrupted in an aurally clean environment. The researchers presented the system with about 2,000 hours of video, all of which featured a single person in the camera frame with no background interference. Once this was complete, they began to add virtual noise — like other voices — in order to teach its A.I. system to differentiate among audio tracks, and thereby allowing the system to identify which track is which.

Ultimately, the researchers were able to train the system to “split the synthetic cocktail mixture into separate audio streams for each speaker in the video.” As you can see in the video, the A.I. can identify the voices of two comedians even as they speak over one another, simply by looking at their faces.

“Our method works on ordinary videos with a single audio track, and all that is required from the user is to select the face of the person in the video they want to hear, or to have such a person be selected algorithmically based on context,” Mosseri and Lang wrote.

We’ll just have to see how this new methodology is ultimately implemented in Google products.

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AMD’s second-generation Ryzen CPUs hit the market next week for $199

Although device manufacturers have alluded to the chips over the past few days, AMD is announcing its second generation of Ryzen desktop processors. As seen in previous leaked specifications, there are only four chips based on the company’s refined Zen CPU design, dubbed as Zen Plus (aka Zen+). All four support the company’s new X470 motherboard chipset although they will work on the current 300 Series chipsets too. 

Here they are: 

 

Ryzen 7 2700X 

Ryzen 7 2700 

Ryzen 5 2600X 

Ryzen 5 2600 

Cores: 

8 

8 

6 

6 

Threads: 

16 

16 

12 

12 

Base speed: 

3.7GHz 

3.2GHz 

3.6GHz 

3.4GHz 

Boost speed: 

4.3GHz 

4.1GHz 

4.2GHz 

3.9GHz 

Cache: 

20MB 

20MB 

19MB 

19MB 

Power draw: 

105 watts 

65 watts 

95 watts 

65 watts 

Cooler: 

Wraith Prism
(LED) 

Wraith Spire
(LED) 

Wraith Spire
(No LED)

Wraith Stealth
(No LED) 

Price: 

$329 

$299 

$229 

$199 

Availability: 

April 19 

April 19 

April 19 

April 19 

While Intel boasts about bringing six-core processors to the mainstream audience, AMD already has you covered with eight-core chips for a low price. Intel will supposedly offer eight-core variants later this year based on its current eighth-generation “Coffee Lake” design, but until then, AMD is still ahead of the core-counting game. 

As shown above, the Ryzen 7 2700X has a nice performance increase over the first-generation Ryzen 7 1700X chip with a 300MHz higher base speed, and a 500MHz higher boost speed. But it also requires a bit more power, consuming 105 watts versus the former chip’s 95 watts. Meanwhile, the power consumption of the Ryzen 7 2700 stays the same compared to the first-generation chip despite a 200MHz boost in the base speed and a 400MHz boost in the maximum speed. 

On the Ryzen 5 front, the Ryzen 5 2600X replaces the current Ryzen 5 1600X using the same power requirement and base speed but provides a 200MHz boost in the maximum speed and a higher amount of cache (19MB vs. 16MB). Replacing the Ryzen 5 1600 is AMD’s new Ryzen 5 2600 chip with a 200MHz higher base speed, and a 300MHz higher maximum speed while drawing the same amount of power (65 watts). 

What we don’t see in the new mix are replacements for the Ryzen 5 1500X, the Ryzen 5 1400, and the Ryzen 7 1800X processors, nor did AMD reveal Ryzen 3 replacements. There is a good chance AMD may shove its Ryzen 7 1800X successor under its upcoming Threadripper refresh while the Ryzen 3 replacements will come later this year. For now, AMD appears to be keeping the CPU options a bit more refined than the first-generation launch. 

Of course, the four new processors sit just fine in current motherboards with the AM4 CPU socket. But to take full advantage of the new chips, you might want to consider swapping out the motherboard with new solutions packing AMD’s latest X470 chipset. The company says X470 has an improved power structure to handle higher clocks on the Zen+ design.

The chipset also supports AMD’s new StoreMI technology. In the company’s test system, World of Warcraft loaded in 41.37 seconds when moving from the character select screen to the virtual world without StoreMI, and 14.74 seconds with StoreMI enabled.

All four processors will be available on Thursday, April 19, with a starting price of $199. 

Is the PlayStation 4 a great Blu-ray player?

If you enjoy Blu-rays for their ultra-high quality, the PS4 isn’t all the way there.

The DVD player in the PlayStation 2 is a big part of why that console was so popular. Parents were able to put a DVD player that was cheaper than most of the other DVD players on sale at the time in their kid’s room, and it also had tons of games! Sony continued this momentum into the PlayStation 3 with a Blu-ray player at a time when standalone BR players were both expensive and overly complicated.

But with the PlayStation 4, Sony didn’t push the envelope quite as much. The Blu-ray player in this latest generation of consoles works in most situations, but how good is it compared to the other DVD players out there? Let’s take a look!

Not one kind of Blu-ray

All Blu-ray players are not created equal, which may be a difficult thing to wrap your head around. Some players are slower than others because of the processor used to power the experience, for example. In many cases, you’ll find streaming apps alongside the ability to play the physical disk, so there’s a single remote for playing DVDs and watching Netflix.

But even after you set aside things like remote control features and how fast you can go from putting the Blu-ray in the player to watching a movie, there are different kinds of Blu-rays that require specific players to be fully functional.

Where Blu-ray brought physical media from 480p to 1080p so everyone could enjoy HD movies with better sound, Ultra High Definition or UHD Blu-rays bring the resolution up to 4K and frequently include extras like HDR video and Dolby Atmos audio support.

Put plainly, the difference between watching a Blu-ray and a UHD Blu-ray on a 4K UHD TV with a decent sound system is more than a little noticeable. It’s also worth pointing out UHD Blu-rays are frequently more expensive than normal ones, but in many releases often include a standard Blu-ray for those interested in future-proofing their movie collection.

How good is the PlayStation 4 Blu-ray player?

The Blu-ray player in all versions of the PlayStation 4, from the original released in 2013 to the 4K-ready Pro model released in 2016, is a standard 1080p Blu-ray player. Because it uses the same processor used to play visually intense games, it’s one of the faster Blu-ray players you can buy. The control interface uses the PlayStation 4 controller by default, but you can pick up a PlayStation 4 Universal Media Remote for $25 if you’d rather have a traditional remote. Your PlayStation also has access to basically every streaming app ever, so if you use your PS4 as a Blu-ray player you can also use it to stream everything else. You can even watch live TV on it, with a PlayStation Vue subscription.

If you’re after 4K Blu-rays, you’re looking at a standalone player, or an Xbox One X.

This is an excellent Blu-ray player for an HD TV, offering a ton of features with room for expansion, but if you use a 4K TV it’s not quite 100% anymore. This console lacks UHD Blu-ray support, even in the 4K-enabled PlayStation 4 Pro, which means you won’t be able to play UHD Blu-rays and enjoy things like Dolby Atmos audio support with your 4K HDR video. You can use the PS4 Pro to stream 4K, but the lack of UHD Blu-ray support makes it less than ideal for getting the best possible picture on your 4K TV.

So how good is the PlayStation 4 at playing Blu-rays? It depends on what you want. If you have a 4K TV with a killer sound system, you’re better off getting a standalone UHD Blu-ray Player or an Xbox One X if you have one. But if you haven’t made the upgrade to 4K and aren’t planning to anytime soon, the PlayStation 4 Blu-ray player is fantastic.

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Kobra’s Bluetooth OBD-II car code reader is down to just $8

Figure out what’s wrong without taking it into the shop.

This Kobra Bluetooth OBD-II car code reader is down to $8.03 on Amazon with code UKLW9NL5. This is the lowest price we’ve ever seen, even through previous coupon codes. It has sold around $13 for several months now.

The Kobra Bluetooth code reader can connect to and read the code from any car made after 1996. It can then use Bluetooth to transmit the readings to the free app, or third party apps like Torque Pro on Android. It can retrieve both generic codes and car manufacturer specific Diagnostic Trouble Codes. Clear that Check Engine light that has been pestering you for months. More than 655 reviewers give this reader 3.9 stars.

This reader does not work with iOS devices. If you need one for your iPhone, this Kobra deal from the end of March is still active. It’s not Bluetooth, it’s Wi-Fi, but it works with all three platforms.

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How to personalize your Android phone with themes, launchers, and more!

Every Android user has a theme on their phone. They just don’t know it yet.

Even if you don’t know what icon packs or launchers are, if your phone has a home screen on it, it’s got a theme. Android users don’t have to live in their app drawers; they can choose how their phone looks and functions. They can use widgets to interact with apps without opening them. They can use custom icons to theme or obscure the apps on their phone from prying eyes. They can even use gestures and contextual data to help their phone adapt to where they are and what they’re doing.

So, what are Android themes and how can you get started with one?

• What’s in a theme?
• Launchers and how to use them
• Wallpapers: the most basic and pivotal personalization
• Widgets: the forgotten home screen element
• Icon packs: make your apps stand out or blend in
• Sounds: can you hear the smartphones ring?

What’s in a theme?

There are many types of themes within Android, but the kinds we’re going to refer to throughout this article are home screen themes or launcher themes. A theme is the visual styling of your home screen, achieved through the choice and use of launchers, wallpapers, widgets, icon packs, sounds, and other elements.

When many users think of themes, they imagine complex elements and high-maintenance setups. For most of us, though, a theme does not mean changing the way your phone is set up, only how that setup looks.

Even if you’re not interested in making your home screen look pretty, there are some other uses for launcher themes and customization that you may be interested in:

• Hiding apps: Most launchers have the option of hiding an app from the app drawer, but for apps that you want easily accessible but away from prying eyes, many launchers also allow you to rename apps and give them icons less likely to draw the eye. Or make them invisible altogether.
• Transferring themes and setups: Your mother just got a new phone, but she wants everything where it was on her old one. Well, with theme backups, you can make all her Android devices look like her old one.
• Efficiency: The less time you spend fumbling around your app drawer looking for the app you need, the quicker you can get back to doing something with your life besides staring at your phone. Some launchers will re-order your apps based on how frequently you use them, and through the use of your launcher’s folders, you can cut down on the clutter, both in your app drawer and on your home screen.
• Choice: Don’t like the way your app drawer is alphabetized? Don’t like only having a 5×5 grid on your home screen and not being able to resize your widgets? A third-party launcher can let you choose just about everything about your launcher experience.

Launchers and how to use them

All phones come with a launcher, which is the interface through which users interact with their phone’s apps and customize their home screens. Samsung phones come with the “Samsung Experience” launcher, HTC phones come with Sense Home, LG simply calls its launcher the Home launcher, and Pixel phones use the Pixel Launcher, and so on.

Both Samsung Themes and Sense allow custom system themes, with theme galleries for users to select from, themes that reach the notification shade and system apps like Settings and the dialer. Even if you’re looking into getting a third-party launcher, if your phone has these themes, you might want to browse through them.

If you’re ready to jump into the wonderful world of third-party launchers, there’s a lot out there to choose from, but here are three launchers that should help you get your feet wet.

• Nova Launcher is one of the most popular launchers on the market. While being highly customizable, it’s still a launcher that is easy for most beginners to ease into. Nova is also has a free version for you to cut your teeth on before you invest in Nova Prime.
• Evie Launcher is a cunningly simple launcher with quick reaction time and blissful freedom in its features. Capitalizing on recent launcher trends in gestures and layouts, Evie feels cutting edge without feeling like a beta product, giving users a clean and stable launcher that’s quick as a whip.
• Smart Launcher 5 is a launcher that aims to be as smart as it is beautiful, combining some elegant theming prowess with a smartly-sorted categorical app drawer. This launcher is quick to setup, quick to customize, and it’s worth a look if you don’t want to take much time to get your launcher set the way you want it.

If you’re looking for more launchers to try, see our favorite launchers!

Wallpapers: the most basic and pivotal personalization

No matter what launcher you use, you need something to put up behind your widgets and apps. Wallpapers come from all corners of the internet and beyond. If you’re not using a picture of your kids or your dog or that lovely little cabin up in Denver that you’re going to own as soon as you win the lottery, you may want to consider replacing the wallpaper that came on your phone with pictures from one of these sources:

• Muzei: If you’re looking for beautiful wallpapers that will rotate out on a regular basis, Muzei and its many, many extensions are here for you. Muzei is a live wallpaper, meaning it’s a program rather than a single static image. Muzei will pull pictures from one or more gallery sources and set a new one as your wallpaper every few hours, even every few minutes if you want.
• Android Central’s Wallpaper Weekly roundups: We’ve gathered wallpapers for a wide variety of styles and topics for your wallpaper pleasure. From holiday wallpapers to puppies and dragons and landscapes of all kinds, we’ve got at least one wallpaper here you’re bound to love.
• Zedge: Zedge is kind of like the Walmart of wallpapers, ringtones, and other theme elements. Zedge hosts tens of thousands of wallpapers for you to download and apply, from dozens of categories.
• DeviantArt: If you’re looking for some more artistic fare for your wall? Go to the venue tens of millions of artists use to share their art with the world. DeviantArt has it all, from nouveau tableaus to digital renderings to classic paintings.
• Icon Packs: If you intend to use an icon pack, many packs come with wallpapers to compliment the icons they’ve worked so hard on.

Read more: How to find the best wallpapers for Android

Widgets: the forgotten home screen element

Widgets are miniature apps that run on your homescreen. There are several types of widgets, from toggle widgets to control your Hue Lights to forecast widgets for your local weather to playback widgets to control your music. Most of your apps probably came with some sort of widget, and there are third party widgets you can download if you don’t like those.

Widgets can serve as shortcuts into apps, or better yet into specific functions of an app. The Google Keep widget lets me access my most recent notes or start a new one without keeping the icon in my dock. The Netflix widget can take me to the next episode of my current shows. My weather widget can take me to current conditions or one of my forecasts, depending on what I click.

Read more: the best widgets for theming

Make your apps pop — or blend in — with icon packs

Much as we wish it weren’t so, not all icons are created equal. Google has guidelines for app icons, but Samsung and LG do, too, and each developer may have their own ideas about how their icon should or shouldn’t fit with those guidelines. As a result, our app drawers often look like a melting pot of icon styles, even as Adaptive icons try to bring some semblance of order to the chaos. Well, never fear! Icon packs are here to make our apps look uniform again… at least in the launcher.

Now, most launchers that come preloaded on your phone do not allow you to use icon packs from the Google Play Store. Even the themes on HTC and Samsung phones don’t allow you to apply icon packs from the Play Store, only from their proprietary stores. So, if you’re interested in theming your icons without doing it one at a time, you’ll need to seek out a third-party launcher with custom icon support, which most third-party launchers do.

As mentioned before, custom icons can help make your app drawer look uniform, but it can also help apps fly under the radar, as it were. Using a false icon or a blank icon can help turn curiosities into an innocuous calculator or word processor. We’re not here to judge; we’re just here to help.

Check out some of our favorite icon packs

Sounds: can you hear the smartphones ring?

There’s a Broadway adage that goes “Nobody leaves the theater humming the scenery”. No matter how beautiful your theme may be, the portion of your theme that those around you will notice most isn’t something they’ll see on your screen. It’s what they’ll hear from your phone every time you get a call, text, or notification. And while you can get sounds for your theme nearly anywhere, here are a few resources for finding sounds that suit your themes, your personality, and your environment.

• Zedge: Zedge has nearly every ringtone you can imagine and some more that you can’t. They even have that ungodly Samsung Whistle that my mother must have. You can set the sounds directly in the app instead of having to download them and copy them into the proper system folder.
• Reddit: Even if you’re not much of redditor, Reddit is a wonderful place to look for ringtones and other theme elements. There are threads in r/Android every few months, if not every few weeks, where users will swap ringtones and ringtone ideas, and ringtone/wallpaper threads pop up in fandom reddits all the time.
• Audacity: Okay, this isn’t actually an Android app, it’s a desktop program. I’ve made plenty of themes in my day, and I have to say that my best themes’ sounds usually come from me sampling something from a YouTube video or a track in my music library. So if you’re not finding what you want elsewhere, clip it yourself!

And remember: sounds can be magical, nostalgic, or downright annoying. A co-worker had an Eric Cartman notification tone for two months. Every time he got a text, I wanted to throw his phone through the wall.

Be memorable, not maddening.

For adding sounds to your Android device, check out our guide to custom ringtones!

This is only the beginning

Once you get used to your new launcher and some new widgets, we’ll be ready to dive into gesture controls, Kustom widgets, Tasker shortcuts, and much, much more… the world of Android customization is out there, just waiting to be explored. But for now, show us your screen and what you’re using on it! Have a launcher you’ll use forever? Which widget never leaves your home screen? Swear by your icon pack? Share them in the comments! And stay tuned for more Android theming goodness!

Updated April 2018: New year, new themes, new links, and we’ve undertaken some spring cleaning for your reading pleasure.

Android Auto’s wireless mode is now available for Pixel and Nexus phones

More devices should support the feature soon.

Back at Google I/O 2017, Google announced that Android Auto was gaining a new wireless mode that allowed your phone to essentially connect to a Wi-Fi network your car/head unit put out so you could get the Android Auto experience without having to mess with any cables. Pioneer, Kenwood, and JVC announced a few units at CES 2018 that supported this feature, but up until now, it still wasn’t live.

Thankfully, Google’s finally ready to shine the spotlight on Android Auto’s wireless side. As noted by Android Police, a member of the Android Auto team recently announced that this functionality is now available for Pixel and Nexus devices.

You’ll need a Pixel/Pixel XL, Pixel 2/Pixel 2 XL, Nexus 5X, or Nexus 6P and an Android Auto receiver that supports the wireless function in order for it to work, and you’ll have to physically connect your phone to your car at least once to get things synced up for the first time.

In regards to other phones, Google says it’s “actively working with phone manufacturers on adding software compatibility and hope to share more updates soon.”

If you’ve been holding off on Android Auto, will the new wireless mode entice you to finally make the jump?

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Yamaha’s 7.2-channel Bluetooth 4K receiver is down to $320

Time to set up your home theater.

The Yamaha RX-V583BL 7.2-Channel 4K MusicCast AV Receiver is down to $319.99 on Amazon. It sells for around $500, and when it does go on sale it never drops below $430. This is a one-day only deal because it’s part of Amazon’s Gold Box.

This is a 7.2-channel surround sound receiver with Dolby Atmos and DTS: x. It uses MusicCast to connect a multi-room speaker system together with coverage for up to nine additional rooms. The ports include four HDMI inputs, one HDMI output with 4K Ultra HD support, HDR, and HDCP 2.2. It includes wireless support through Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Apple AirPlay, and more. This receiver has 4 stars from What Hi-Fi?.

Other Yamaha receivers are on sale as well. If you need more HDMI ports and some added functionality, the Yamaha RX-V683 is on sale right now as well.

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Sony Xperia XZ2 Compact review: The new standard for small

Tiny. Mighty.

I love being surprised by tech. After doing this job for nearly 10 years, that’s getting harder and harder to achieve, so when it happens I savor and nourish that feeling.

The Sony Xperia XZ2 Compact surprised me. I’ve admittedly always been a fan of the diminutive form factor and pleased that Sony, a company whose smartphone has struggled over the past few generations, has maintained its cadence along with larger Xperia kin. This time around, the Compact doesn’t match the larger XZ2 in build quality or features, but it excels tremendously in the core competencies of what to expect with a modern Android phone, and stands apart by offering a relatively capacious screen in a body so, so one hand-friendly.

But first, the specifications

The Xperia XZ2 Compact is smaller and more plasticky than its larger counterpart, but internally they’re pretty similar.

Operating System	Android 8.0 Oreo	Android 8.0 Oreo
Display	5.7-inch LCD, 2160x1080Gorilla Glass 5 18:9 aspect ratio	5-inch LCD, 2160x1080Gorilla Glass 5 18:9
Processor	Snapdragon 845 64-bitAdreno 630	Snapdragon 845 64-bitAdreno 630
Expandable	microSD up to 400GB	microSD up to 400GB
RAM	4GB	4GB
Rear Camera	19MP Exmor RS, hybrid AF960FPS FHD slow-mo, 4K HDR video	19MP Exmor RS, hybrid AF960 fps slow-mo, 4K HDR video
Front Camera	5MP f/2.2 23mm wide-angle	5MP f/2.2 23mm super wide-angle
Connectivity	Wi-Fi 802.11ac, Bluetooth 4.2, NFC, USB 3.1, GPS	Wi-Fi 802.11ac, Bluetooth 4.2, NFC, USB 3.1, GPS
Battery	3180mAh	2870mAh
Charging	USB-CQuick Charge 3.0Qnovo Adaptive Charging Qi wireless charging	USB-CQuick Charge 3.0Qnovo Adaptive Charging
Sound	Stereo S-Force front speakers	Stereo S-Force front speakers
Water resistance	IP68	IP68
Security	Rear fingerprint sensor	Rear fingerprint sensor
Dimensions	153 x 72 x 11.1mm	135 x 65 x 12.1mm
Weight	198 g	168 g
Network	1.2Gbps (Cat18 LTE)	800Mbps (Cat15 LTE)
Colors	Liquid Black, Liquid Silver, Deep Green, Ash Pink	White Silver, Black, Moss Green, Coral Pink
Price	$799	$649

There are three significant differences between the larger and smaller of this Xperia generation: the XZ2 is glass and metal whereas the Compact is metal and plastic; that plastic means the Compact lacks the XZ2’s wireless charging; and the smaller chassis of the Compact means there’s no space for the so-called Dynamic Vibration System.

There are other minor differences, like the smaller battery (obviously) and slower cellular connectivity, but by and large, this is the same phone shrunk down to pint-sized proportions. And it’s glorious.

All the small things

When I review a phone like this, which is just like another phone but marketed at a specific niche, I have to ask myself: were it not for this one differentiating feature, would it be a good phone? Thankfully, with the Xperia XZ2 Compact, the answer is decidedly yes. While the frosted plastic back of the phone looks a little downmarket, the Compact feels every bit a flagship. Dense and perfectly weighted throughout, it’s a joy to hold and even nicer to use, especially if you are, like me, someone who prefers swiping across a virtual keyboard.

The Compact feels every bit a flagship, even though the back is made of plastic.

The Xperia XZ2 Compact is the first of the series to cross the 5-inch mark, and that’s done without aggravating the dimensions. While the phone isn’t completely free of bezel, the now-18:9 LCD display is surrounded by the slimmest found to date on a phone bearing Sony’s name (the logo of which is unfortunately emblazoned on the front of the phone — bad Sony!) and while it works on larger phones to make them easier to grip, it works doubly well here.

The phone is both narrow and comparatively tall, but not too tall for the average thumb to easily reach the top. After using the 5-inch Pixel 2 and the 5.8-inch Galaxy S8 (which are basically the same physical height), using the Compact is like a dream.

There’s also a fingerprint sensor on the back of the phone, a hallmark of Sony’s new Ambient Flow design that unabashedly thickens the phone with a rear bulge that pushes the Z-axis to 12.1mm. To be honest, it’s a fair compromise given the extraordinary battery life to be gleaned from the 2870mAh cell, and that fingerprint sensor — this year it actually works in the U.S.

What’s missing is a headphone jack, but Sony sort of makes up for it by offering stereo speakers that sound really good, especially from a phone of this size. That refrain will keep coming up, too: it’s hard to believe Sony fit so much hardware into a device this small.

The right stuff

The Xperia XZ2 Compact shares the same basic hardware as both its larger counterpart and the rest of 2018’s flagships: a Snapdragon 845, 4GB of RAM, and 64GB of base storage. Its 5-inch display is an IPS LCD panel, and while it’s not bad, it’s not great, either.

The issue is neither sharpness — the 2160×1080 resolution makes it quite dense, actually — nor viewing angles or color reproduction but refresh rate: the screen ghosts. That means when scrolling quickly through a web page or Twitter feed, you can see a wisp of the previous image fading into the background. It’s not always perceptible, but coming from the high-quality OLED panel of the Galaxy S9, it’s clear this is not a comparatively high-quality display.

Like almost every other Sony flagship over the last few years, this one is rated IP68 water resistant and dustproof; like high-end phones from many other companies, it lacks a headphone jack. At $649, this is certainly the cheapest way to buy a Snapdragon 845-powered phone at the moment, and there are no major compromises to speak of, which I appreciate.

It would have been nice to see a headphone jack in a phone that purports to be a music lover’s dream phone — from LDAC to ClearAudio+ to DSEE HX, there are more than enough hyperbolic acronyms to go around —but at least Sony’s selling this awkward and amusing charging-headphone jack dongle.

Picture this

Every year, Sony says its phone cameras are among the best in the business, and every year they’re… not. This time around, Sony is using the same 19MP MotionEye sensor as the Xperia XZ1 series, along with the same ƒ/2.0 G Lens that we’ve seen in its phones for years, but the photos look great — a lot better than last year’s models.

The camera’s not perfect, but you’re going to be happy with these photos.

Why is that? Because Sony decided to work with Qualcomm to optimize the camera for the Snapdragon’s Spectra image signal processor (ISP). Increasingly, phone makers are utilizing computational photography algorithms — essentially math — to output better photos in all types of challenging lighting conditions.

The gist is that in most situations, the Compact works great and produces wonderfully detailed photos that stand up to any flagship on the market. There is some softness in the corners, but the subject in focus, even in dim conditions is usually in focus with plenty of detail.

The main improvement over previous Xperias that I’ve seen in my time with the Compact is that, perhaps thanks to the upgraded ISP, low-light photos aren’t smeared by overzealous smoothing as a way to cut down on grain. Photos taken in dim conditions ramp up the light sensitivity to compensate for lack of stabilization, but better processing makes the grain barely noticeable.

Sony Xperia XZ2 Compact (left) | Samsung Galaxy S9 (right)

Of course, without optical stabilization or a wider lens, the Xperia XZ2 Compact can’t quite compete with the Galaxy S9 and Huawei P20 for overall low-light fidelity, but given its physical constraints, I’m quite happy with the results. In fact, a few of the low-light photos from the Compact look as good or better than the Galaxy S9 equivalent. The Compact isn’t great at tap metering — the effect of tapping the screen to adjust the exposure level of a scene — but it is not phased by most other situations.

If you’re a videographer, however, you’re probably going to want to think about whether the Compact is for you; it can shoot 4K HDR video, which is great, but the electronic stabilization pales in comparison to the aforementioned competition, and the finicky 960FPS super slow motion doesn’t quite make up for it.

That’s because even though the phone supports 1080p slow motion video (the S9 can only do 720p), the capturing process is entirely manual, which requires quick reflexes and a lot of luck.

Battery for day(s)

It’s quite remarkable that Sony was able to fix a 2870mAh battery cell in a phone this, well, compact, but it’s there and it lasts awhile. In fact, I couldn’t once get the phone to die before the end of the day, which is quite a feat. (The Galaxy S9, for a comparative data point, barely gets me through the afternoon.)

Sony’s always managed to eke as much battery life from its phones as possible, but given the Compact’s size, its longevity is a remarkable achievement.

Simply great

The Xperia XZ2 Compact arrives with Android 8.0 Oreo, and it looks and feels both familiar and outdated. Sony hasn’t given its software an overhaul for a couple of years, though it’s done a fairly sticking with Google’s Material Design guidelines for its launcher and apps. There’s very little about the software that’s opinionated, and that suits me just fine — I tend to install Nova Launcher and move on with my life.

This is Sony’s best small phone ever, and one of its best releases to date.

Admittedly, it’s disappointing not to have a swipe-for-notifications gesture on the fingerprint sensor, and there’s no face unlock option — both of which are becoming increasingly common — but those are minor omissions in an otherwise excellent experience. Similarly, many will scoff at the phone’s lack of a headphone jack, but Bluetooth (and USB-C) audio sounds so good, I find it difficult to care. There’s an adapter in the box, too.

The Good

• Incredible form factor
• Improved design over previous Xperias
• Good build quality
• Quality photos in almost all conditions
• Fingerprint sensor! In the U.S.!

The Bad

• I missed the glass back of its Xperia XZ2 sibling
• Lacks optical stabilization, which affects video more than stills
• No carrier partners, or Verizon/Sprint compatibility
• Screen quality lags behind the similarly-priced competition

At $649, the Sony Xperia XZ2 Compact isn’t cheap — it’s the same price as the Pixel 2 and $50 more than the Honor View 10 — but it’s the best small phone you can buy. It’s not necessarily a better phone than, say, the Pixel 2, since the camera doesn’t quite match up and it won’t be updated as quickly, but it stands up quite well.

On the other hand, it’s not available at any U.S. carriers, so you can only buy it unlocked from Best Buy right now, with Amazon jumping on board in a month or so. It also doesn’t work with Verizon or Sprint, so it’s T-Mobile and AT&T and their various partners. (In Canada, the Xperia XZ2 Compact will be sold exclusively through Quebec-based Videotron starting on April 18.) Not a dealbreaker, but something to consider. It’s also unclear whether you’ll get things like VoLTE or VoWifi (though I’d expect not).

If you can stomach those compromises, I can heartily recommend this fantastic pint-sized phone.

See at Best Buy

HBO renews ‘Silicon Valley’ for a sixth season

HBO announced this week that it’s renewing Silicon Valley for a sixth season. Season five, which premiered last month, is the first without TJ Miller, who tweeted his support of the Erlich Bachman-free season earlier this year, saying, “See – told you the show would be better without me on it.” Miller was recently arrested and charged with calling in a fake bomb threat.

We just keep coming back for more. #Season6 #SiliconValleyHBO pic.twitter.com/nn7unqfN9F

— Silicon Valley (@SiliconHBO) April 12, 2018

HBO also renewed the Bill Hader-led comedy series Barry, the first season of which premiered in March. “While Barry has delighted audiences with its deft interplay of comedy and drama, Silicon Valley remains as brilliantly and frighteningly prescient as ever,” Amy Gravitt, executive VP of HBO programming, said in a statement. “We’re thrilled that these two smart, funny shows are returning for another season.”

Via: The Verge

Source: HBO